Schaffer’s Stages Of Attachment

Question 1

What are Schaffer’s 4 stages of attachment? (Always imagine super man)

Answer 1

Asocial, indiscriminate attachment, specific attachment, multiple attachment

Question 2

Stage 1: asocial stage

Answer 2

• 0-6 weeks
• babies response to human and non-human objects is similar.
• happier I’m the presence of humans, however indiscriminate of which humans

Question 3

Stage 2: indiscriminate attachment

Answer 3

• 2-7 months
• recognise familiar people
• have a preference for humans over non-humans but will accept comfort from any adult as they don’t have stranger anxiety.

Question 4

Stage 3: specific attachment

Answer 4

• 7-9/12 months
• infant shows obvious protest when a certain person puts them down (separation anxiety).
• this person has the best quality relationship with them (primary attachment figure, usually mother)
• start to develop stranger anxiety

Question 5

Stage4: multiple attachments

Answer 5

• around 10 months +
• infant has multiple attachments to siblings, grandparents, parents etc (separation anxiety from them) secondary attachments.

Question 6

Stranger anxiety

Answer 6

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display

Question 7

Separation anxiety

Answer 7

Emotional distress/distinct protest seen in many infants when they are separated from people with whom they have formed an attachment.

Question 8

Schaffer and Emerson procedure:

Answer 8

• longitudinal study
• 60 babies were observed from working class families.
• mothers and babies were visited once a month for the first year, then again at 18 months.
• they asked mothers how babies reacted to 7 everyday separations (e,g adult leaving the room)
• they measured separation anxiety.
• they also assessed how babies reacted to unfamiliar adults (stranger anxiety)

Question 9

Schaffer and Emerson findings:

Answer 9

• between 25-52 weeks of age, 50% of babies showed separation anxiety towards their mother (specific attachment)
• this specific attachment was with the caregiver who was most sensitive to infant signals, not necessarily who they spent the most time with.
• by 40 weeks 80% of babies had a specific attachment and 30% had multiple.

Question 10

+ high external validity

Answer 10

• most observations were carried out by parents during normal activities and reported to researchers.
• if observers were present, babies could become anxious and distracted easily (not behave normally).

Question 11

+ real world application

Answer 11

• helps parents make informed daycare decisions
• in early stages (asocial, indiscriminate) infants can be comforted by any skilled daycare worker but if a baby starts daycare in the specific attachment stage, care from unfamiliar adults could cause stress and long term issues.

Question 12

• poor evidence for asocial stage

Answer 12

• at this stage babies have poor coordination and are immobile so it is difficult to make judgements from observations, so low results reliability.

Question 13

• generalisability/cultural variations

Answer 13

• study was done in the uk which is an individualist culture and multiple attachments are more common in collectivist cultures e.g Japan as more families live together wholely. (Hard to generalise)

Question 14

• biased samples

Answer 14

• all children and parents are from a working class background in a specific district.
• sample from the 1960s (parenting has changed). More women working and more stay at home fathers.